http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=8086D4D0-4949-45B2-BC2C-752F0C9D270C Obama, interrupted
By: Jennifer Epstein and Seung Min Kim
November 3, 2014 12:27 PM EST
President Barack Obama can’t seem to get through a big public speech without being heckled by immigration reform advocates.
Obama was interrupted five times on Sunday afternoon in Connecticut and a few more times in the weeks leading up to Election Day: small groups of mostly young adults shouting out, demanding the president act to stop deportations of undocumented immigrants.
The president’s response has been the same each time — he’s not the guy they should be heckling.
“I gave you relief administratively, and we’re going to work on the next one,” he said Sunday in Bridgeport. “So I support you. I’m with you. I’m with you. I’m with you. And you need to go protest the Republicans. Because I’m not the one blocking it.”
Obama’s not the only prominent Democrat getting heckled.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was interrupted multiple times during a Thursday speech in Maryland. First lady Michelle Obama was heckled that same day in Connecticut. Sen. Kay Hagan (D-N.C.) cut short a speech last week as protesters refused to relent.
A protest against deportations during an Obama speech in San Francisco last November drew national attention, and immigration-related interruptions have become commonplace since.
They are aimed not only at pressuring Obama to take sweeping executive actions on immigration, but at making clear to Democrats that they can’t take the Latino vote for granted. The president had promised to act by the end of the summer, but confronted by Democrats worried about losing the Senate majority, the White House decided to delay his announcement until after Election Day.
“Unfortunately, that’s why the president delayed administrative relief – they didn’t think Latinos were as important as other folks who they needed,” said Erika Andiola, the co-director of the Dream Action Coalition, which has been behind many of the protests against Democrats.
“Our message is you cannot go back on your promise,” said Carlos Rojas Alvarez, a 20-year-old undocumented immigrant from Colombia who’s lived in Boston for the past 15 years. Alvarez and a friend were the source of one of the five interruptions Obama encountered Sunday, and he interrupted Clinton earlier in the week.
Among some Democrats in Washington, there’s a sense that the Dreamers are going after the wrong target.
“It’s a little disturbing now days before the election to see so much focus on Democrats when it’s still absolutely clear that the Republicans are the enemy,” said Jim Manley, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s former communications director.
“It’s much better to have her in the Senate next year than it is to have Thom Tillis,” Manley said. “I know she didn’t vote the way they would’ve liked on the DREAM Act, but at least she wants reform.”
Senate Democrats and 14 Republicans passed a comprehensive immigration reform legislation in June 2013, but the House Republicans refused to act on it or to bring up their own bills. Though Hill Republicans are bitterly divided on immigration reform, they’ve been united in opposing Obama’s pending executive actions.
But the protesters are insistent that their energy is not misdirected.
“It is absolutely our goal to hold Republicans accountable for failing our communities by obstructing comprehensive immigration reform,” said Rojas, who is affiliated with United We Dream, another group that has been active in organizing protests. “But this moment is not about Republicans. This moment is about the fact that the president has full legal authority … to use his executive power to create an administrative relief program that is broad and inclusive.”
Though pressure has intensified in recent months across the immigrant-rights movement, it’s the Dreamers — young immigrants like Rojas who were brought to the United States illegally — who have led the charge with their aggressive tactics against Democrats such as Obama and Clinton.
“They’ve been absolutely fearless,” Kica Matos, a spokeswoman for the Fair Immigration Reform Movement, said of Dreamers. “They keep us honest, they keep us driven, they keep us inspired … For Dreamers, this is about their parents. This is about their siblings.”
The in-your-face activism has been a hallmark of the Dreamers’ campaign all year long.
Dreamers and other immigration reform advocates staged demonstrations at the Hill offices of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), House Democratic Caucus chairman Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.) and Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.). Dreamers in Colorado protested at office of Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.), pushing the senator to in turn pressure Obama to take administrative action on deportations.
In August, about 145 immigration activists got themselves arrested in front of the White House over deportations – and that was even before Obama announced that he would delay executive action until after the midterms.
The hashtag #not1more – representing the activists’ call to halt deportations — has rippled throughout social media, and Marisa Franco of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, who’s been the lead organizer of the #not1more campaign, said hundreds of grassroots groups have participated.
While much of the attention in recent weeks has focused on pushing Democrats ahead of the midterms, protesters are also looking ahead to 2016. At rally for Hagan on Oct. 25 in Charlotte, Clinton was interrupted by a young man with a sign reading: “Hillary, do you stand with our immigrant families?”
“I understand immigration is an important issue,” Clinton responded. “I thank you for your advocacy.”
Last week, Rojas and a few other Dreamers interrupted Clinton as she addressed a rally for Maryland gubernatorial candidate Anthony Brown. Clinton had been preceded by Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley — another potential 2016 hopeful who’s warded off protests by speaking against the Obama administration on immigration — and offered an increasingly well-rehearsed answer.
“Immigration is an important issue,” Clinton said. “If you had just given me a minute, I would have gotten to the DREAM Act.”
Clinton infuriated immigration advocates when she suggested that unaccompanied migrant children who came to the southern border in record numbers this summer “should be sent back.”
And Clinton has resisted taking a position on whether Obama should act unilaterally on deportations. Activists have pointed to the contrast at the Iowa Steak Fry in September, when Dream Action Coalition organizers confronted her on the ropeline about Obama’s delay on executive action and she responded: “I think we have to elect more Democrats.”
Meanwhile, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who attended a town hall in Iowa that same weekend, told the group, “I believe [Obama] should’ve acted” on executive action when questioned about the president’s delay — much to the Dreamers’ satisfaction.
The issue of immigration is almost sure to play a role in the Democratic presidential primaries and Clinton needs to make her position clear on executive action sooner rather than later, advocates say.
“The longer she delays [on responding], the more likely it is that she will be heckled,” Matos said.
United We Dream and other pro-reform groups have also dogged Republicans including Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida and Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin. And advocates argue that it’s simply not realistic to pressure Republican lawmakers when there are no prospects for an immigration bill before the end of the year, but while the chances of administrative relief from Obama are within grasp.
“We can’t always convince ourselves with the lesser-of-two-evils arguments,” Franco said. “Look where it’s gotten us.”
